More States Want to Compost Table Scraps, But Infrastructure to Turn Them Into Fertilizer or Electricity Isn't Ready

JOHNSTON, R.I.—More states want to recycle their food waste instead of dumping it into landfills, but they have run into a snag: The infrastructure needed to turn huge quantities of table scraps into fertilizer or electricity isn't ready.

In Rhode Island, a landfill in this town outside Providence handles most of the 1.5 million tons of garbage the state generates annually. While the Central Landfill isn't forecast to fill up for 25 years, the long and costly task of finding more space is prompting officials instead to...